ROME — The Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has written to Prime Minister Liz Truss urging her not to move the U.K. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
In a series of posts on social media this week, Cardinal Nichols announced he had written to the Prime Minister to “express profound concern over her call for a review of the location of the British Embassy to the State of Israel, with the suggestion that it might be moved away from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”
Such a relocation of the U.K. Embassy would be “seriously damaging” to any possibility of lasting peace in the region as well as to “the international reputation of the United Kingdom,” the cardinal warned.
Nichols went on to say that Pope Francis and the leaders of churches in the Holy Land “have long called for the international Status Quo on Jerusalem to be upheld,” in accord with the relevant U.N. resolutions.
“The city must be shared as a common patrimony, never becoming an exclusive monopoly of any party,” he declared.
I can see “no valid reason” to consider such a move at the moment, he stated, while urging the Prime Minister “earnestly to reconsider the intention she has expressed and to focus all efforts on seeking a two-state solution, in which Jerusalem would have a guaranteed special status.”
For their part, the Palestinians have called the proposed embassy relocation a “blatant violation of international law,” the BBC reported.
The Palestinian ambassador to the U.K., Husam Zomlot, wrote on Twitter that it was “extremely unfortunate” for Truss to use her first appearance at the U.N. as prime minister to “commit to potentially breaking international law.”
In December 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy there.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci).
“I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump said of his decision. “This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement.”
“Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace,” he said.
In 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commemorated the third anniversary of the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by publicly thanking Trump and hanging a copy of the president’s proclamation on the wall of the cabinet room next to a 1948 proclamation by then-President Harry Truman recognizing the new State of Israel.
“Exactly three years ago, President Trump became the first world leader to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Netanyahu said at the time.
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